Drew Angerer, Getty Images
Like many Americans, President Trump awoke Monday (Oct. 2) to news of a mass shooting that occurred at the 2017 Route 91 Festival in Las Vegas late Sunday/early Monday.
More than 50 people were killed and 400 injured — it is the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. The president issued the following early statement via Twitter:
My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2017
He is expected to speak and deliver his thoughts in full at 10:30AM ET.
The shooter is 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, who sat in a 32nd story Mandalay Bay hotel room and fired at the country music festival crowd below. Fans were watching Jason Aldean‘s headlining set at the outdoor Las Vegas Village arena.
Aldean ran offstage mid-song when he realized what was happening. “I still don’t know what to say but wanted to let everyone know that me and my crew are safe,” he writes on social media. “My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved tonight. It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night.”
The gunman is said to have killed himself before police arrived.
Checking In With All Route 91 Harvest Fest Sunday Performers
Jake Owen, Big & Rich, Kane Brown and Luke Combs also performed performing at the festival. Owen took to social media following the indecent, saying he could hear the gunshots hitting the stage. He’s since spoken to CNN and the Bobby Bones Show about the horrifying events and how things unfolded, from his perspective.
“This sounded like a full-on, automatic rifle just unloading at that point,” he says to the Bobby Bones Show. “Jason was out on the catwalk, he just pulled his guitar up in the air and started running back towards the drum set to get off the stage. And that’s when you knew. People started fleeing. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Sadly, This Tragedy Isn’t Without Precedent
This Article Was Originally Posted at www.TasteofCountry.com
http://tasteofcountry.com/president-donald-trump-response-las-vegas-shooting/